Sadiq Khan is right to talk about restricting extortionate rents – but safety, security and quality of life must also be addressed

• Amina Gichinga is an organiser for London Renters Union

‘Renters in London struggle every month to make ends meet, spending the bulk of our earnings to live in what’s often cramped, insecure and poor quality housing.’ Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

‘Renters in London struggle every month to make ends meet, spending the bulk of our earnings to live in what’s often cramped, insecure and poor quality housing.’ Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Published on Fri 25 Jan 2019 12.11 EST

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hen Anabel and her flatmates were told the rent in their Kentish Town houseshare was due to increase by £400 a month, all of them had to find a new place to live. In the space of just a few years, increases by Ghazal’s landlord left her paying 80% of her wages on her Forest Gate accommodation, on a monthly rent bill that jumped from £700 to £1,300. Kenny’s Clapton landlord is currently trying to up the rent from £2,000 to £2,400 on the three bedroom ex-council flat he shares with three others, just two years after a previous 20% hike.

Renters in London struggle every month to make ends meet, spending the bulk of earnings to live in what’s often cramped, insecure and poor quality housing. Our rents rise faster than our wages, and we rarely get much choice over where we’re able to live. In Newham, some of the members of our London Renters Union spend 80% of their monthly income on housing, with little left for basics like food and clothing. Without big changes, many of us will be stuck paying rising monthly rents until we retire.

We’re pleased, then, that the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is listening to what people have been saying for years and is working on plans for rent controls – even if we’re also hesitant to put much faith in the announcement, without further details on the table.

As the mayor outlined in Wednesday’s announcement, average private rents in London rose by 38% between 2005 and 2016, and Londoners pay more for a one-bedroom flat in their city than for a three-bedroomed house in any other English region. Tackling the impossible costs of renting is a crucial first step in making sure everyone in our city can have a safe and secure home.

In contrast to some of the comments coming from the government and the media, rent controls are not a radical policy. In fact, they are the norm in Paris and Berlin, and have even helped stabilise housing costs in New York. The policy is also popular: 68% of Londoners in a YouGov survey support rent control.

‘While it is good that Sadiq Khan is advocating rent controls, he has no power to implement them.’ Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

We’re often told that a free hand on rent levels is needed to incentivise landlords to provide more and better housing. It’s a rosy promise not reflected in our own lives and communities. In a system that prioritises profit, we see landlords charging extortionate sums for shoddy conditions and no security. We still have no choice but to cough up.

That’s why we’re glad to see rent controls being taken seriously – but this is just a first step. We need to see detail. Rent is already unaffordable, so we need rent controls which sustainably bring down rents, and ensure that they are in line with local incomes – not simply slow their increase or peg them at their current unaffordable levels.

And while it is good that Khan is advocating rent controls, he has no power to implement them. It remains to be seen how he will convince a government full of private landlords to put a ceiling on what they can squeeze from ordinary Londoners.

We also know that rent controls alone will not fix the private rented sector.

Renters in the UK have among the weakest rights in Europe: we need to address the laws that make renting insecure and unsafe, as well as expensive. That means an end to no-fault evictions – now the chief driver of rising homelessness in England. The London Renters Union, along with the community-based union ACORN and Generation Rent, is fighting to scrap section 21 of the 1988 Housing Act, removing the constant threat of eviction that hangs over private renters.

We need to make private renting a secure tenure. In England the standard tenancy length is just six months. But in Scotland it is now open-ended, or lifetime. Adopting this policy in the capital would make private renting a more stable way to build a life for London’s three million renters.

London’s renters need homes that are safe, secure and comfortable, from which we can build fulfilling lives, and that we can afford. Our current system, fixed on delivering profits for landlords, is giving us the opposite. It needs to be transformed to put the needs of people first – rent controls are an important step on the way to that.